Collecting Used Cooking Oil

Used cooking oil is an easily available product. Cooking oil is used in almost every home and every restaurant. After use, it is then considered a waste product. In some places, it is recycled, while in others, it is just disposed of with the trash and often, we do not know or care what the waste management companies do with it.

With the advancements in technology, used cooking oil can now be put to many uses. One of the most common uses is as a biofuel.

With the increasing conversation and actions being taken to combat the degradation of our environment, anything that helps is quite welcome. Biodiesels are environment friendly fuels. Making them from used cooking oil helps improve the quality of air we breathe and improve the quality of living.

A major challenge involved in ensuring that the used cooking oil reaches the companies that use for the good of the environment is in the collection. With cooking oil in as many households as there are people, used cooking oil collection is a challenge, and that is where we come in.

Methods of collecting used cooking oil

There are different techniques employed in the collection of used cooking oil from the source. The source being homes and restaurants.

The most common collection methods include:

Scattered collection

As the word implies, this used cooking oil collection method involves the collecting company getting its product directly from its suppliers. In this method, the collecting companies visit restaurant premises and the homes of their suppliers for collection.

This method has two main advantages. The collecting company is able to know their customers. By collecting the oil directly from their premises, the collecting company has intimate knowledge of their customers and their product.

Secondly, this method ensures that the collecting entities have a reliable source and supply of their main raw material. Normally, the collecting company has an agreement with their suppliers. This agreement indicates the frequency of used cooking oil collection. As a result, the collection company has a guarantee that on this day of the week or month, they will have used cooking oil to collect. On the other hand, the homes or restaurants in this agreement have a reliable waste cooking oil handler who collects it on time and conveniently.

Centralized collection

In this method, the collecting company invests in building or creating a central point where the suppliers of used cooking oil can deliver. Rather than having to go door to door collecting their raw materials, their suppliers deliver it to them.

This creates convenience for the used cooking oil distributors. They can contract third parties who collect cooking oil from homes and restaurants or they could act as a disposal point for used cooking oil.

In this way, they are able to save time and concentrate on cleaning and refining the cooking oil and turning it into beneficial products rather than spending most of their time in the collection of their raw materials.

Supply and collect

In this method, the same company that collects the used cooking oil is the same company that supplies fresh ready to use cooking oil. In this way, the company is able to manage and control its supply chain and have a reasonably stable collection of used cooking oil.

Here, the company has a reasonable expectation of how much used cooking oil they will collect in a given period unlike in the other two methods.

Also they are able to provide savings to their suppliers. They can do this by providing fresh for use cooking oil at a subsidized cost and collecting the used cooking oil freely, rather than having to pay for it.

Benefits of used cooking oil collection by professionals

Environmentally friendly

Having your used cooking oil collected by professionals goes a long way in reducing environmental pollution and the hazards it brings about such as diseases. Also, all the used cooking oil that is collected is turned into environmentally safe renewable energy products.

Safe

Professional used cooking oil collectors provide solutions for the storage of used cooking oil. They provide their used cooking oil suppliers with containers in which they can store their oil after use safely and conveniently as they await the next collection or waste delivery day.

Enhances compliance to waste management rules and regulations

Depending on where their suppliers are located, there are various rules and regulations governing waste management. There are numerous rules on how to dispose of, reuse or recycle different products including used cooking oil. Having it collected by professional handlers keeps the individual and business entity compliant to waste management rules.